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| CSR plc: Acquisition of UbiNetics' software business for $48
million | | | |
Cambridge, UK – CSR plc today announces that it has entered into an agreement with
UbiNetics Holdings Limited to acquire UbiNetics’ software business (“UbiNetics”), for a cash consideration of $48
million . UbiNetics is based in Cambridge UK and specialises in communication protocol software for mobile phone
manufacturers. The Acquisition will be financed entirely from CSR’s existing cash resources.
The Acquisition
will provide CSR with a strong R&D team to accelerate its existing software developments in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and UWB
(Ultra Wide Band). UbiNetics’ team will also give CSR the capacity to extend its software offering to mobile handset
customers. UbiNetics has 170 engineers located in Bangalore India and Shenzhen China, in addition to its Cambridge
UK headquarters.
UbiNetics has been developing protocol stacks for GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA (UMTS)
and HSDPA since 1999 and this valuable expertise will help to reinforce CSR’s offering to cellular handset
customers. CSR plans to use this existing intellectual property to provide multimode software to handset makers and
to “bundle” UbiNetics’ cellular multimode and HSDPA stacks with CSR’s existing wireless protocol and DSP software.
CSR will support UbiNetics’ existing customers for its cellular multimode software, and will seek new business in
this area, licensing its software to mobile phone companies.
The Board believes that the
Acquisition will provide CSR with significant additional research and development engineering talent. CSR expects
that this additional resource will increase R&D expenditure by approximately $4.5 million a quarter. UbiNetics
currently has limited ongoing revenues.
UbiNetics’ R&D team will also help CSR to develop UMA
(Unlicenced Mobile Access) voice and data software for fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) handsets. UMA makes FMC a
reality since it enables mobile networks to seamlessly extend across Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. CSR expects UMA to extend
the potential market for its UniFi, BlueCore and in future, UWB integrated circuits. Examples of FMC networks
already in development today include BT’s Fusion and Korea Telecom’s OnePhone. The combination of the HSDPA protocol
stack and Wi-Fi with their well-matched data rates will allow UMA to be extended from today’s voice-centric
solutions to high-speed wireless data applications.
The strength of CSR’s software development
team has increasingly proven to be a key differentiator between CSR and its competitors, and with today’s
acquisition, CSR will move closer to its target of 60 percent of its headcount being involved in software. CSR’s
stated aim has been to continue investing in R&D to preserve the long-term future of the business.
Completion of the Acquisition is conditional inter alia on an agreed pre-sale reorganisation taking place
within the UbiNetics group.
James Collier, Technical Director and Co-founder of CSR commented,
“CSR continues to grow its software development activities. In the mobile phone market we see both call hand-off
between cellular and local area networks and high speed data handling as key drivers for the widespread deployment
of PAN and LAN. Together with UbiNetics, we will have all the experience, skills, track record and staff required to
design the software for Universal Mobile Access and fixed-mobile converged phones. Looking ahead, we plan to extend
the range of our products in order to simplify the complex integration task of the mixed hardware/software and
multi-standard system that a cellular phone has become.”
John Hodgson, CEO of CSR added, “In
acquiring UbiNetics, we are exploiting our distinctive capabilities by extending CSR’s capacity for sustainable
innovation and by improving our ability to be flexible to market needs.” Hodgson continued, “There is great synergy
here, the UbiNetics team will join CSR to give us a world leading wireless software capability that will help
sustain our clear competitive advantage.”
JPMorgan Cazenove acted as financial adviser to CSR. |
Viernes, 29 Julio, 2005 - 05:28 |
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